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A Time to Stand (episode)
With the Dominion on track to winning the war against the Federation, Sisko and his crew take a captured Jem'Hadar ship into enemy territory with a mission to cut-off the Jem'Hadar's supply of ketracel white in the Alpha Quadrant (Season Premiere). Summary The episode opens up on a battered Federation and Klingon fleet. Three months have passed since the Dominion occupied Deep Space 9 and the Dominion War began. The ''Defiant'' has been on the run from the Jem'Hadar for 78 hours. Everyone on board is tense and exhausted. In the medical supply room, Doctor Julian Bashir is treating Elim Garak for a small head wound. Bashir estimates their chances of survival at 32.7%. Garak is not impressed with Bashir's calculations, notwithstanding Bashir's recently revealed genetic enhancements. The Defiant and Klingon General Martok's ''Rotarran'' rendezvous and Worf and Jadzia Dax are reunited in the Defiant's wardroom. After a joyous hello, Worf reveals that he is upset that Jadzia has scheduled the ritual sacrifice of the Targ to occur after their wedding feast. Jadzia gives in, saying, "first we'll shed blood, and then we'll feast." As Worf and Jadzia leave, Benjamin Sisko suggests that they not break any bones. Bashir enters and says he has word of the Seventh Fleet. Out of 112 ships, only 14 ships have returned. Angry, Sisko slams his fist on a tabletop, breaking the glass. On Deep Space 9, now renamed Terok Nor, Gul Dukat is quite pleased with how the war is going. Reports of victories arrive daily and he says, "It is a good time for Cardassia. And the Dominion." Weyoun is happy that life seems to be returning to normal on the station. Kira wants Bajoran security returned to the station, but Dukat is concerned about the implications of allowing armed Bajorans on board. Weyoun is disturbed by the way Dukat seems to be undermining the Dominion's position because of his antipathy towards the Bajorans. Weyoun demands to be included in all decisions on station policy henceforth. Further, Weyoun is impatient with Dukat's slow progress on clearing the minefield that is blocking the wormhole, preventing Dominion reinforcements from getting through from the Gamma Quadrant. Dukat complains that destroying these self-replicating mines is difficult because when you destroy one, its neighbor replicates another, but he will get it done. Quark, Odo, and Kira discuss the occupation. Quark says that as occupations go, this one's not so bad. There are no cries of starving children, ghetto fences dividing the Promenade, or exhausted Bajorans sprawled upon the ground. Odo reluctantly agrees. Kira asks, if the Dominion is such a friend to Bajor, why are there no Bajoran security officers on the station? After the Defiant's arrival at Starbase 375, Admiral William Ross relieves Sisko of command of the Defiant, and tells Sisko that he'll be informed of his new assignment later. While waiting, Sisko contacts his father Joseph in New Orleans, Earth. His father is upset that his grandson Jake is still on Deep Space 9. Sisko says that staying behind was Jake's choice, but the elder Sisko doesn't care about this. Benjamin promises his father that he'll get Jake back soon. Benjamin's father asks if things are as bad as the news services say. Sisko says they're worse. Meanwhile on Terok Nor, Jake wants an interview with Weyoun, but learns that Weyoun has been censoring his Federation News Service articles by blocking Jake's transmissions. Weyoun explains that he thinks Jake's reporting is biased against the Dominion, using words like "occupation". Weyoun says that if Jake starts reporting fairly, Weyoun will allow Jake's transmissions to go through. Back at Starbase 375, Ross reveals Sisko's and the Defiant crew's new assignment. They're to destroy the Dominion's main ketracel-white storage depot in the Alpha Quadrant, located deep in Dominion territory. They'll use the Jem'Hadar ship Sisko captured last year ( ) to infiltrate Dominion space. On board preparing for departure, the crew starts to complain about the conditions on the Jem'Hadar ship: no chairs, no food replicators, no viewscreen, and no infirmary. Garak joins the crew as his knowledge of Cardassian space and Cardassian contacts may be useful. On Terok Nor, Dukat, ensconced in Captain Sisko's office, wants to spend more time with Kira. Kira is disgusted by Dukat, and slaps his hand away when he reaches for her face. Sisko's Jem'Hadar ship, en route to Dominion space, is discovered by the [[USS Centaur|USS Centaur]]. Sisko fires at them, targeting the Centaur's weapons array only. Luckily, three Jem'Hadar ships enter the fray and the Centaur warps away. In order to return Bajoran security to the station, Kira urges Odo to take advantage of his god status as a changeling with Weyoun. Odo is very uncomfortable with this, but agrees. When Odo presents his demand to Weyoun, he immediately agrees: "Consider it done." Dukat objects, but Weyoun tells Dukat to keep out of it. It is strictly between Weyoun and Odo. But Weyoun asks Odo for a favor in return: he asks Odo to sit on the station's Ruling Council, along with Weyoun and Dukat. When Odo tells Kira about Weyoun's request, she is concerned that Weyoun may be using Odo to validate the Dominion's occupation. Odo says he that he thought we were using them, and besides, he's walked this fine line before. Kira remains uneasy. Meanwhile, Sisko's Jem'Hadar ship arrives at the ketracel-white storage facility, which is built into a small asteroid. After they observe another ship go through the exchange process, Garak requests 84 canisters of ketracel-white. O'Brien says he has 83 empty canisters standing by, and one not-so-empty one which is filled with 90 isotons of enriched ultritium. This should be enough to take out the whole storage facility. Sisko's ship moves to inside the depot's security zone. O'Brien sets the detonator for three minutes. After the exchange of (mostly) empty canisters for canisters full of white takes place, Garak asks the facility for clearance to leave. Instead, the facility raises their security net, trapping Sisko's ship inside. The facility orders Sisko's ship to stand by. The crew concludes that if they stay inside the net the bomb will destroy the ship along with the depot. The explosion will also take out the security net. But if they attempt to escape too early, they'll smash into the inside of the security net before it comes down. Dax and Bashir calculate that if the ship goes to impulse exactly 1.3 seconds before the bomb detonates, they will avoid both the explosion and the security net. Dax programs this into the computer and hands the piloting controls over to it. But the bomb goes off early. Dax takes back helm control and gets the ship out of there. The Jem'Hadar ship barely makes it out, the huge explosion chasing at its tail. But they survive, and the plan worked. The ship suffered heavy damage however. The core matrix is fried- there's no warp drive. Bashir informs everyone that the closest Federation starbase is "17 years, two months, and three days away - give or take an hour." Sisko's Jem'Hadar attack ship, now without warp capacity, starts the long journey back. Memorable Quotes "What about freedom of the press?" "Please tell me you're not that naive." : - Jake Sisko and Weyoun "We've received word of the Seventh Fleet." "Go on." "Only fourteen ships made it back to our lines." : - Julian Bashir and Benjamin Sisko "Permanent documentation file, Dukat, S.G. Each day brings reports of new victories. The war continues to go well. The enemy is retreating on almost all fronts. It's only a matter of time before the Federation collapses and Earth becomes another conquered planet under Dominion rule. All in all, it's a good time for Cardassia. And the Dominion." : - Dukat "I never expected to say this, but as occupations go, this one's not so bad." "No, I suppose that's true if all you're worried about is a monthly balance sheet." "I'm not just concerned with profit, Major. Look around. Do you see any ghetto fences dividing the promenade? Or exhausted Bajoran slave laborers sprawled on the ground after a greuling day in the ore processing center? Do you hear the cries of starving children? I don't. Now don't get me wrong, I miss the Federation, too. All I'm saying is, things could be a lot worse." : - Quark and Major Kira "You know, there's something I just don't understand. You're always telling me that space is big, that it's an endless frontier, filled with infinite wonders." "It's true." "If that's the case, you would think there'd be more than enough room to allow people to leave each other alone." "''It just doesn't work that way... It ''should. But it doesn't." :- 'Joseph' and 'Benjamin Sisko' "''Cardassia was on the edge of an abyss, Major. The war with the Klingons left us a third rate power. My people had lost their ways. I've made them strong again." "At what price? You sold Cardassia to the Dominion!" "A high price, to be sure. But look what we're getting in return: the Alpha Quadrant itself." : - Dukat and Kira Nerys "I could make things very pleasant for you here, Kira." "You could start by doing something about your breath." "I'm a patient man. I can wait." "Wait for what? What do you think is going to happen here, Dukat? That you're going to wear me down with your charming personality? That I'm going to be swept off my feet by that insincere smile? Are you really so deluded that you actually believe that we're going to have some kind of intimate relationship?" "Oh, we already do." : - Dukat and Kira Nerys, friendly as always "I've invited Mister Garak to join us. Considering we're going into Cardassian territory, he might prove useful." "It's been known to happen." : - Sisko and Garak Background Information The Six-Episode Arc * The original plan for the multi-episode arc was that it would encompass the entirety of the Dominion War; as Ronald D. Moore explains, "The initial thinking was that we would end Season 5 on a cliff-hanger with the Federation plunged into war, and then we would come back and do a multi-episode arc, and the war would last that long." Originally, the arc was going to be four episodes, but Ira Steven Behr extended it to five, and eventually to six. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) * Of the somewhat controversial decision to have the show go semi-serialized, Rick Berman argues, "I think the potential for the serialization - or ''near-serialization - of the show was always there. If you're on a spaceship, as in ''Voyager'' or ''The Next Generation'' or ''The Original Series'', you have your family of people who go off and meet aliens every week. But ''Deep Space Nine'' was conceived as a stationary show. It took place on a space station, and we found ourselves developing dozens of ancillary characters, secondary characters, and recurring characters. And because we remained there, those characters kept coming back. So once you have the tapestry of all of these different characters, and you had all of these different stories that were kind of weaving in and out, I think it sort of begged for more of a serialized formant. And the fact that the Dominion War became such a major part of the last two seasons really contributed to the feeling of serialization''." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) * Despite the inevitability of the show becoming serialized, the decision to do a multi-episode arc at the beginning of the season was not one that was taken lightly. As Hans Beimler explains, "This was big, a really big thing for us. Because even though we had done some strange things over the course of the show, we never had attempted a six-episode arc. In the history of ''Star Trek, it never had been done. None of us came from series' where you did that, so it was a new experience for all of us. And there was a learning curve. But it showed us the possibilities and the excitement that could be garnered, and in the end, we liked it so much that we decided to do the ten-episode arc at the end of the series''." Similarly, Ira Steven Behr says, "There was some hesitation over whether it was a valid direction for us to take, about whether we were pushing the envelope a little too far. But ultimately everyone agreed that it was tremendously successful, and one of the best things the show ever did." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) * Of the process of writing the six-episode arc, Ronald D. Moore explains, "We broke the six episodes together, but as everybody went off and worked on writing them, things would start to change or shift. It became a much more interactive process that it ever had been before. Because each detail had a domino effect. We'd had that happen before, to a certain extent, but we'd never done this many episodes with this many continuing storylines as a ''single piece. We weren't used to the rhythm. It was definitely challenging''!" Similarly, Hans Beimler points out, "It changed the dynamic of the way we work and it changed the kind of involvement that everybody had. Because René Echevarria or Ronald D. Moore would go away to work on an episode, and discover something in the writing process that was going to change everybody ''else's script. One of them would be coming back all the time saying, 'You know what guys? We need to rethink.' And then we'd call in all the troops and rethink the storyline''." Ira Steven Behr says essentially the same thing; "The guys were coming in saying, 'What are you writing?' 'Are we gonna do this?' 'Where's Kira at right now?' 'What's Odo doing?' There were a lot of phone calls, a lot of running into each other's offices, a lot of 'Should this go before this?' and 'Wait a second - does this track?' The fact is, the show isn't geared to work like that." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) "A Time to Stand" * It was important to the writers during the composition of this episode that it not be all about huge space battles, but that there also be an element of humanity to it. According to Ira Steven Behr, "We knew that going into the war would make it easy for us to fall into the 'hero' trap, where you concentrate on ''Star Wars-type heroic space battles and stuff like that. But we really wanted to keep the human aspect of the pain of war. So we included a human moment: the concerned father talking to his son''." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) * Barry Jenner makes his first appearance as Admiral William Ross in this episode. After Jenner finished shooting, Ira Steven Behr took him aside and said, "We've had other admirals on this show. We're glad we've found you. Sorry it took five years!" Behr also says of Jenner, "He brings a ''gravitas to the role, and yet you can see there's a man behind the uniform. I think that Barry Jenner is one of the unsung heroes of the show, one of the pieces of the puzzle that might not be readily apparent to the audience. But he's part of the glue that makes our job easier''." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) * The writers created the short scene between Worf and Jadzia Dax because they were worried that no matter what they did for the seventh episode of the season, it was going to seem weak compared to the multi-episode arc which preceded it. As such, they decided early on to have the wedding in the seventh episode, so they decided to 'remind' viewers of that particular story thread here, and also to indicate to people that things will be happening even when the arc is over. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) * This episode serves as another chapter in the on-going Kira/Dukat arc which began in the second season episode . After it became apparent that Dukat was attracted to Kira in , they briefly worked together in the episodes and , before Dukat came to blame Kira for Ziyal's friendship with Garak in . In "A Time to Stand", Dukat's, seemingly blind, attraction to Kira is very much to the fore, but so too is Kira repulsion towards his advances. Dukat would briefly win her over in , but Kira would ultimately come to the realization that she wants nothing to do with him. * The episode is dedicated to the memory of Brandon Tartikoff, the former Chairman of Paramount Pictures, who died in August 1997. It was Tartikoff who originally approached Rick Berman about doing a new Star Trek series, and it was Tarikoff's idea to do a stationary show, as opposed to one on a starship. * The Jem'Hadar attack ship is the one that was captured by the crew in "The Ship". Ronald D. Moore commented: "There was a line cut somewhere that indicated that the captured J'H ship was transmitting a newly updated recognition signal." http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/6952/ron63.txt This is why they were not approached by other Dominion ships. * This episode has one of the longest teasers in Star Trek, lasting just over seven minutes. Video and DVD releases *UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 6.1, . :With this volume, the layout of the video sleeve changes slightly - the stardates previously included have been dropped, and the two episodes are separated by a horizontal line. *As part of the DS9 Season 6 DVD collection. Links and References Guest Stars *Andrew Robinson as Elim Garak *Jeffrey Combs as Weyoun *Marc Alaimo as Dukat *Aron Eisenberg as Nog *J.G. Hertzler as Martok *Casey Biggs as Damar *Barry Jenner as William Ross ;And: *Brock Peters as Joseph Sisko Co-Star *Mark Lentry as Jem'Hadar soldier (uncredited) References 47; cochrane; [[USS Curry|''Curry, USS]]; dabo; ''Elkins'', USS; evasive maneuvers; ''Fredrickson'', USS; holo-imager; propaganda; ''Raging Queen'', USS; Reynolds, Charlie; sandwich; Starfleet Fleets; Tyra system; viewscreen; virtual display device * 47 references Starship classes ''Centaur''-type; ''Curry''-type; ''Defiant''-class; Federation attack fighter; ''Galor''-class; Jem'Hadar attack ship; Jem'Hadar battlecruiser; Klingon Bird-of-Prey; ''K't'inga''-class; Maquis raider; ''Miranda''-class; tug Chronology *Dominion history |next= }} Time to Stand, A de:Zeit des Widerstands es:A Time to Stand nl:A Time to Stand